


Tidewater

by goodnicepeople



Series: Thicker Than Water [2]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Background Taako/Kravitz, Gen, Governor Callen - Freeform, Governor Kalen - Freeform, I'm mad I had to spell it like that, Magnus (referenced), references to blood but nothing particularly graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-16 03:15:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10562568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodnicepeople/pseuds/goodnicepeople
Summary: “If I start painting word-pictures, put me out to pasture.”“A dagger through the chest?”Taako stiffens and goes quiet, despite himself. Perhaps the finality of the action feels a little heavier at night. A little less unshadowed by the bustle and forward-press of life needing to go on, promises continuing to be made and kept.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel of sorts to [Any Lighter For It](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9479441). You don't have to read that first, but I think this'll make a lot more sense as a follow-up!
> 
> Also, there are references to blood here, but nothing particularly violent or graphic. Nothing more intense than anything in the previous installment.

“Sun’s overrated, I say,” Merle grunts, stretching his back. “Burns your skin an’ your eyes. Moon’s where it’s at.”

“You can’t see shit in the dark anymore, old man,” Taako retorts, unsure where this conversation is tipping.

“All the more thankful for a good full moon, then” Merle answers, extending his wooden arm out over the vista, at the gently rippling water made bright by the cool, gray light. He looks like he might cast a spell or perhaps start proselytizing grandly, but instead he exhales all his breath. And then, quietly,

“Keeps things sorta serene and bright. No noise. Lookit the way it turns the water to glass.”

Taako raises an eyebrow, turning over in his reclining wood chair.

“When’d you become a poet?”

“Became sappy in my old age, I guess.”

“If I start painting word-pictures, put me out to pasture.”

“A dagger through the chest?”

Taako stiffens and goes quiet, despite himself. It’s not that the joke is taboo - or even _new_ \- the subject of much ribbing and cackling over the last two days. But he does still recall the warmth of blood over his fist. Thick, and squelching underfoot. Perhaps the finality of the action feels a little heavier at night. A little less unshadowed by the bustle and forward-press of life needing to go on, promises continuing to be made and kept.

Taako brushes a stray flower from his hair; a gift from Mookie, indelicately threaded (jammed, really) in amongst his new, tight braid. Courtesy of Merle’s surprisingly dexterous fingers. Byproduct, too, of his surprisingly unironic insistences to participate in a _family activity_. Taako tries not to think too hard about the uncharacteristically genuine, heartfelt implications of that. That’s not how they _do_ , capiche? Or maybe it isn’t how they did. Neither of them seem capable of change, yet...

“Nah,” Taako says quickly, brushing off the question as he flicks the crumpled gardenia into the sand. “Something a little less… personal, maybe.”

Tomorrow he’ll head back. Leave Merle behind with his kids and his lousy sandals on the beach. Back to his own home, and his husband, and - he supposes, too - to Magnus, who’s called every night since he’s been gone. Taako has managed to politely brush him off with half-baked excuses Magnus eats up like a macaron. Just a little trip away, Mags. Hushing Merle on his end of the line. Hissing, _he can’t know we’re together, he’ll be suspicious. Just the two of us? When have we ever spent time alone?_

When had they ever? If they’d ever? Taako certainly doesn’t know, cueing his immense surprise when Merle invited him back to his home. _For a little rest and respite, after a job well done._

 _And drinks, too._ Merle clarified. _Food ‘n drinks._ So Taako followed.

“D’ya think he knows it’s done?” Merle asks, never saying his name, but Taako following the thought with ease. Clearly at the forefront of his mind, too, despite their shared, unspoken decision not to mention him.

“Nuh-uh,” Taako says. A pause, and then he shrugs. “I dunno. Maybe a little. He gets these splitting headaches.”

“Does he?”

“Yeah. Tries to hide it. But I can tell it’s when he’s… running over it. Like a tongue over a missing tooth, you know? Prodding at it.”

“Can’t pull it up, though? What he’s reachin’ for?”

“Nah. Never. Gets sort of dizzy and teary. It’s really…” Taako’s voice tightens, in a telling way he resents. Revealing some emotion the both of them patently refuse to unearth. So he concludes, stiffly, “it’s kinda pathetic.”

“Well, maybe this’ll set it right.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

He looks briefly over at Merle. Casually, just in his periphery. Merle is staring out at the water, hand combing through his beard.

“You know you can come by whenever ya feel like it, right?” he asks at length. Still looking out at the horizon intently, fixated, like it has some secret to reveal. “For a little vacation, or whatnot.”

“Yeah,” Taako says, lightly. “Yeah, I know. And uh. Same to you, too.”

“Thanks, thanks,” Merle answers a little too quickly. Pitching them both back into a stilted silence. A light wind picks up, catching the discarded purple flower beside him and setting it tumbling lightly over the ground. Landing firmly out of reach.

“You’re a good kid,” Merle begins, just as Taako shushes him and speaks over him.

“Don’t start with that. And I’m not much younger than you, bucko,” Taako shoots back, warningly. “Not young enough to be your _kid_.”

“Then, what? I’d just say you’re _good_ ,” Merle ripostes teasingly, “but we both know that’s hardly true.”

Taako does laugh at that. Genuinely.

“ _For Julia,_ ” Merle muses, into the quiet. So low the gentle crash of waves almost drowns it out. “Dunno if I’ve ever loved someone like that. Have you? Something you love so much it follows you your whole lifetime. Somethin’ you’d die for - ”

“Something you’d kill for,” Taako supplies, which answers Merle’s question with a satisfying sort of finality. A short, thoughtful hum from Merle. His hand settles on the arm of Taako’s chair, not quite touching his arm. Then he raps once, with his knuckles, as he laughs.

“Good kid,” he says again. Conclusively. Taako doesn’t reject it. Another short knock on the wood. “You come by whenever you feel.”


End file.
